Customs
and Border Protection Bureau officials conceded that Border Patrol
agents crossed into Mexico while pursuing drug smugglers, but they
also said the incursion was only about 27 feet and the agents acted
while in hot pursuit of armed drug traffickers.

Law
enforcement officials this writer spoke with say they are appalled
at outrage expressed by the Mexican government and some lawmakers
on Capitol Hill over the incident.

"The
agents were following their adrenaline and dealing with a tense situation
following a drug trafficking attempt," Border Patrol spokesman Doug
Mosier told AP.

"We've
always had a very good working relationship with Mexico. We're perplexed."

The
incident has caused many to call the Mexican government hypocritical
since Mexican police and soldiers have entered the US on several occasions.
Mexican officials characterized US border agents chasing suspects
"a breach of Mexican sovereignty." They said that the Mexican federal
police have started a full investigation into this one incident.

The
case involved agents chasing a pickup truck full of marijuana that
was driven across the Rio Grande and got stuck in the mud on the Mexican
bank. The suspects abandoned the vehicle and ran into Mexico. They
are still at-large in their home country since the Mexican police
are investigating the Border Patrol instead of hunting for the drug
smugglers.

Several
Border Patrol agents -- Mexico claims there were 15 -- started picking
up drug bundles that had fallen off the truck and some that were still
inside the truck, according to officials. The international boundary
is an imaginary line through the center of the Rio Grand.

Police
officers from the village of Guadalupe Distrito Bravos, some of whom
wore no uniforms, arrived at the scene openly displaying their firearms,
officials on both sides of the border said. The American agents drew
their guns which led to a tense standoff. According to officials,
the US agents cautiously withdrew to their side of the border.

Border
Patrol officials initially reported that they were skeptical that
their agents had set foot into Mexico. However, after a preliminary
investigation, Robert Gilbert, Border Patrol chief for the El Paso
sector, said last Monday night that there had been an incursion of
perhaps 25 feet. He also stressed that the incursion resulted from
drug smugglers attempting to enter the US with a large shipment of
marijuana.

"Agents
had been acting on instinct when trying to secure the vehicle for
their own safety," Gilbert said.

"In
the past, these events have had the potential to turn violent and
so officers must take steps to minimize any threat. Agents instinctively
secure vehicles for officer-safety reasons after perpetrators flee,"
he said.

Border
Patrol officials said they were not considering disciplinary action
against the agents for the moment but continued to look into the matter.
They said they were surprised by the Mexican public reaction.

"They
should be surprised at Mexico's blatant hypocrisy. I wish I had a
buck for everytime Mexican cops and soldiers who work for the drug
cartels illegally enter the United States armed to the teeth," said
an Arizona police officer who requested anonymity.

"And
for our own leaders to remain silent when Mexican [cops] enter the
US, while they try to appease the [Mexican] government when our guys
chase bad guys, is outrageous," he added.

For
example, last January, Hudspeth County, Arizona sheriff's deputies
accused the Mexican military of taking part in a standoff and a possible
incursion over an abandoned drug load. Yet US government officials
denied the Mexican incursion in order to quell the tension between
the US cops and renegade Mexican soldiers.

During
a congressional hearing into the Hudspeth County incident, Border
Patrol Chief David Aguilar said that there had been 144 documented
incursions by possible Mexican officials into the United States between
2001 and 2005. But he claimed many of them were "unintentional" violations
of US sovereignty.

Also
common are attacks on Border Patrol agents from south of the border
-- with rocks, flaming bottles and bullets. In once incident an agent
near Fort Hancock was shot in the leg by assailants in Mexico.

According
to an AP story, the last time Mexican officials decried an American
incursion in the El Paso area was in 2002, when FBI agents allegedly
went a few feet into Mexico at Anapra to retrieve two wounded agents
who had been dragged through a hole in the border fence by Mexican
train robbers.

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In
this last incident, Border Patrol agents retrieved about 300 pounds
of marijuana from the pickup and Mexican police unloaded another 1,441
pounds, according to officials from various agencies. The truck itself,
a gray Chevrolet, had been reported to police stolen in El Paso, Texas
in May 2006, which means the suspects had been inside the US committing
crimes even then.

Meanwhile,
the Bush Administration remains silent, as do lawmakers from both
political parties.

Jim Kouri, CPP
is currently fifth vice-president of the National
Association of Chiefs of Police. He's former chief at a New York City
housing project in Washington Heights nicknamed "Crack City" by reporters
covering the drug war in the 1980s. He's also served on the National Drug
Task Force and trained police and security officers throughout the country.

He writes for
many police and crime magazines including Chief of Police, Police Times,
The Narc Officer, Campus Law Enforcement Journal, and others. He's appeared
as on-air commentator for over 100 TV and radio news and talk shows including
Oprah, McLaughlin Report, CNN Headline News, MTV, Fox News, etc. His book
Assume The Position is available at Amazon.Com, Booksamillion.com, and
can be ordered at local bookstores.

The
case involved agents chasing a pickup truck full of marijuana that was
driven across the Rio Grande and got stuck in the mud on the Mexican bank.
The suspects abandoned the vehicle and ran into Mexico.